Universities closed until further notice

Tuesday, 21 August 2012 15:42, DailyMirror   Amid the continuing strike by university teachers, Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanyake  said today all universities excluding the medical faculties would be shut down with immediate  effect until further notice. The minister said all management level stakeholders including University Vice Chancellors,  Directors and Academics had met on Monday to discuss the crisis and it was unanimously  decided to shut down all universities. “As Higher Education Minister and under the Universities Act No.16 I have decided  to close the universities until further notice. The Higher Education Ministry will notify  the date of reopening,” the minister said. (OJ)

Sri Lankan academics need soul searching to find core values

August 20, 2012, 7:39 pm , The Island


By Dr.Gamini Kulatunga

The Open University of Sri Lanka, Faculty of Engineering Technology (retired)

 There were two articles on the subject of Cuckoo land written by C.A. Chandraprema and Prof. Amal S. Kumarage that appeared in the Sunday Island in the last two weeks, respectively. I am responding as a retired university teacher who joined the academia after serving in the industry for over two decades. The reasons for my career-transformation, I would not like to elaborate on, but it was definitely not prompted by any financial gain.

The two writers, with their own thinking based on their life experiences, refer to cuckoo land of academics but the main thrust is on a flawed comparison of income and working conditions in the academia and industry. The comparison of salaries does not take into account the nature of work and the motivation in the two disparate realms. Even if these crucial factors are discounted, both have not mentioned the privilege of taking Sabbatical full pay leave, the academics enjoy every seven years, which would amount to a 15% increase in accrued benefits. I am not taking into account the air tickets to any part of the world where one has got an invitation. The air fare includes that for the spouse and the possibility of earning extra income during the period.

This privilege may be illusive for most present day academics due to many reasons. But, I enjoyed two such occasions that took me and my wife to different parts of the world on work assignments and highly valuable exposure.

Teaching and Research

The academic world is one of teaching and research, which complement each other, and it calls for a commitment of a different nature to that of industry. Industry is motivated by profit-making and the salaries are paid based on delivery of services to meet this end. The extrinsic rewards for work of this nature, that could be assessed in the short-term, do not apply to creative and self-directed work as found in the academia. There are several studies showing only intrinsic rewards that assist in the second category of work (please see note attached at the end).

The main argument put forward by the academics, is based on spending a minimum percentage of GDP on education. This assumes that GDP is a good measure of development in a country. What this type of measure would do to the universities is quite evident now: more buildings, laboratories and equipment but with internal decay promoted by politics, rivalry and jealousy.

The compartment with no water

An example I can quote comes from my own experience at the Open University working in water-tight compartments, highly protected by narrow thinking. We formed an Agricultural Engineering Department, with the help of the British Government, to cater to meet a dire need to infuse engineering to the ailing agricultural sector. Now, the department functions without a single engineer as the three engineers trained in the UK, including myself, have left due to many reasons, and no replacements have been done since then. Now there is only the compartment but no water!

Prof. Krishna Kumar of Delhi University says that academics now treat teaching as institutional work and research as furthering personal career. This seems to be the contention of Prof. Amal. S Kumarage too, when he says consultancy work is a distraction to teaching. Chandraprema thinks this is a way to solve the salary issue. I would think both are misguided in this regard. Any such interaction with the outside world is a must for better teaching.

Teaching based on reality

The lack of intellectual stimulation, among the students by attending the lectures and project work, stems from the dearth of experience of teachers based on reality.  The answer to this is in the false measures, adopted in academic wisdom, of enforced attendance and the current ‘diploma disease’. This wisdom extends to teaching what is in demand but not what is needed.

The reported poor performance of foreign scholarship-students attending local universities may point to the obvious but sad situation prevailing in the local universities. It seems we are able to attract the worst students from other countries. This should be taken as a useful feedback and corrective action must be taken instead of carrying on with a captive audience of local A-level students who have no choice other than joining the rat race.

The problem lies in treating education as an investment like operating a bus service. According to one writer the pay-back period in engineering education is just three years. Then why not ask the students to take bank-loans and pay tuition-fees as there will be no other such lucrative business opportunities elsewhere.

I feel the metaphor of RMS Titanic is very apt. If we go ahead without any change and even have wild dreams of producing 27,000 engineering graduates (equivalent to money spent on CPC hedging-deal!) the whole engineering profession will sink faster than the Titanic and the profession will be beyond any recovery, it may be too late.

Reassessment and soul searching

What is needed is a reassessment of what the academics are doing, and assess whether it meets the needs of development, not mere accreditation mainly for foreign employment. Unless some soul-searching is done, the academics should not expect any support either from the public or the politicians.  Instead, they could treat tertiary education as a business venture and continue to produce goods for the global markets.

Note on Rewarding creativity: When does it really matter?

 This study examined the possibility that the relation between extrinsic rewards (e.g., pay and recognition) and employee creativity varied as a function of two conditions: employee job complexity and employee cognitive style. Our results showed a positive relation between extrinsic rewards and creativity for employees with an adaptive cognitive style who worked on relatively simple jobs. Wefound a weak relation between rewards and creativity for employees with an innovative cognitive style who worked on complex jobs and a negative relation for those in the adaptive style/complex job and innovative style/simple job conditions. We discussed theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

 Implementing

the death penalty

The on-going university crisis

August 20, 2012, 7:42 pm, The Island

A Brief Statement from NASSL

A well-functioning higher education system is what enables a country to improve or at least maintain its comparative and competitive advantage in today’s globalised world. Sri Lanka has over the years benefited from a highly organized education system that the nation could be proud of, consisting of some 10,390 Government Schools, 76 Private Schools, 15 National Universities, 7 Post-graduate Institutes and a number of Vocational and Technical Schools, National Colleges of Education, and Vocational Training Institutes.

Unfortunately, the current stand-off between Government authorities and the teaching staff in the universities (together with the chaos that prevails in the university admission procedures), risks negating the outstanding achievements of Sri Lanka’s education system over more than half a century. Graduates of our universities have been able to hold their own with graduates of universities in the most advanced countries of the world. Our universities are the apex bodies that produce the highly trained manpower for the development of technology, research and the innovations needed to give the edge to Sri Lankan producers to remain competitive.

As a national body of eminent scientists created by an Act of Parliament and with a mandate "to take cognizance of and report on issues in which scientific and technological considerations are paramount to the national interest" the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka (NASSL) wishes to raise its deep concern over the degree of apathy that appears to prevail in the country over this crisis in higher education, with the national university system being dysfunctional for nearly two months. This type of closure of the most vital institutions in the higher education sector is highly undesirable and all Sri Lankans should be much more aware and express their concern more audibly about it. There appears to be no hurry to settle the issue or even to establish a meaningful dialogue. An approach of "wait-and-see" or endless confrontation are not tools to adopt when the future of the country’s education is at stake. The NASSL wishes to urge all parties concerned to act responsibly and to work with focus towards an equitable, lasting solution. The situation calls not for face saving measures but for action with nation’s interest at heart. We wait for the highest form of leadership to be displayed at this juncture.

Dr. Kingsley A. de Alwis

President, National Academy of

Sciences of Sri Lanka

Resolve education chaos or face armed insurrection, says TNA

August 20, 2012, 9:46 pm , The Island


by Zacki Jabbar

 The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday warned that unless the chaos in the country’s education system was resolved expeditiously, it could lead to another armed insurrection.

The Tamil uprising had actually begun in London in the 1970’, long before LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran entered the scene; Tamil students who were affected by the standardisation policy had been forced to go to England to pursue higher studies after their parents sold whatever assets they had, TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran told a news conference in Colombo.

He said that the youth were bitter about what had happened to them in their motherland and it became one of the primary reasons for the ethnic conflict that had been dragging on for decades.

EPRLF leader, Suresh Premachandran, was a living example of a Tamil who had abandoned his studies in London and gone to Palestine for military training, Sumanthiran said, adding that the pioneering General Union of Eelam Students and Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students comprised many like minded persons.

A countrywide protest would be launched before the next budget to ensure that sufficient funds were allocated to provide ample educational opportunities up to university level, the MP said.

Sumanthiran said that the current budgetary allocation for education was a joke when compared to the monies being wasted by the Rajapaksa government on propaganda activities.

The seeds of conflict had been sown once again with the Z-Score crisis and other related problems. History could repeat itself unless urgent remedial measures were implemented, Sumanthiran noted.

The UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was also of the view that one of the main reasons for terrorism in Sri Lanka was the mistakes that had been committed in the education sector.

When avenues for academic progress were closed, the youth got frustrated and violent. The government should immediately constitute a Parliamentary Select Committee to do a thorough analysis of the drawbacks in the educational system before it was too late, he said.

இலவச கல்வியை இல்லாது ஒழிப்பதா? ஆசியாவின் ஆச்சரியம் ; யாழ்,பல்கலை மாணவர்கள் கேள்வி

UTHAYAN 

ஆசியாவின் ஆச்சரியம் என்பது இலவச கல்வியை இல்லாமல் செய்வதா என யாழ்.பல்கலைக்கழக மாணவர்கள் கேள்வி எழுப்பியுள்ளனர்.

பல்கலைக்கழக விரிவுரையாளர்களில் பிரச்சனைக்கு தீர்வு வழங்குவதுடன் கல்வி செயற்பாடுகளை உடனடியாக ஆரம்பிக்குமாறும் வலியுறுத்தி இன்றைய தினம் யாழ்.பல்கலைக்கழக மாணவர்கள் ஆர்ப்பாட்டம் ஒன்றை முன்னெடுத்தனர் அதன் போதே அவர்கள் இதனை தெரிவித்தனர்.

இன்றைய தினம் காலை 9.30 மணியளவில் பல்கலைக்கழக வளாகத்தில் ஒன்றுகூடிய நூற்றுக்கணக்கான மாணவர்கள் ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டனர்.

இதன் போது பல்கலைக்கழக கல்வியில் அரசியல் தலையீடு எதற்கு, எங்களின் வளமான கல்வியே நாளைய சிறந்த சமுதாயத்தை உருவாக்கும்,இசட் புள்ளி குழறுபடிக்கு தீர்வு வழங்கிக்கி பல்கலை அனுமதியை உடன் வழங்கு,

மகிந்த சிந்தனை என்பது இலவசக் கல்வியை இல்லாதொழிப்பதா?, வரவு செலவுத் திட்டத்தில் 6 வீதத்தை கல்விக்கு ஒதுக்கு,

போன்ற பதாதைகளை தாங்கியவாறும் பல்வேறு கோசங்கள் எழுப்பியவாறும் மாணவர்கள் பல்கலைக்கழக வாசலில் நின்று ஆர்ப்பாட்டம் நடத்தினர்.

எனினும் ஆர்ப்பாட்டம் இடம் பெற்ற சிறிய நேரத்தில் அப்பகுதிக்கு இராணுவ புலனாய்வுத் துறையினரும்,சிறீலங்கா காவல் துறையினரும் வந்தடைந்தனர்.

ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்ட மாணவர்களை பல்கலைக்கழக மாணவர்களை உள்ளே சென்று ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஈடுபடுமாறு கோரிக்கை விடுத்தான் எனினும் மாணவர்கள் அவரது கருத்துக்கு செவிசாய்க்காமல் தமது ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தை முன்னெடுத்தனர்.